“Let’s talk about…” – Open Peer-2-Peer Exchange for Musicians
Moderated by Melissa Perales
Let’s talk about… Networking as Practice” – Open Peer-to-Peer Exchange for Musicians
Moderated by Melissa Perales, Music Pool Berlin consultant and board member, curator, promoter, and cultural worker who has been active in Berlin’s independent music scene since the 1990s.
The group session “Let’s talk about…” expands Music Pool Berlin’s consulting work into a small-group format focused on exchange, reflection, and shared learning.
Networking as part of your practice
This session looks at networking not as self-promotion, but as part of your artistic and professional practice.
How do you meet people in ways that feel natural and meaningful? How can you build relationships that may lead to collaborations, new perspectives, shared resources, gigs, projects, or future opportunities? And how can connecting with others help make your work more sustainable over time?
For many independent artists, networking can feel uncomfortable, transactional, or like yet another task added to an already demanding workload. In this session, we want to rethink networking as something broader: building relationships, exchanging knowledge, supporting one another, and becoming part of an ecosystem rather than working in isolation.
Together, we will explore how networking can become part of everyday working life — through concerts, collaborations, communities, professional events, peer groups, shared projects, introductions, and simple ongoing contact.
The focus is not only on who you know, but on how relationships grow, how trust is built, and how artists and music professionals can create opportunities together.
How the session works
The session combines moderated input with a strong focus on peer-to-peer exchange. Participants are encouraged to bring their own experiences, questions, challenges, and examples.
The knowledge and experience in the room are part of the session itself.
Topics may include:
– how to approach new people without feeling like you are “selling yourself”
– how to maintain professional relationships over time turning encounters into meaningful collaborations
– finding people whose work, values, or goals connect with yours moving beyond the isolation of the DIY approach
– sharing knowledge, contacts, resources, and opportunities identifying what you can offer others, not only what you need
– creating networks that support a more sustainable artistic practice
– navigating Berlin’s music ecosystem while remaining open to wider
– local and international connections
Session Structure
1. Check-in & Introductions – A brief round of introductions. Participants share where they are
currently in their work and what they hope to develop, change, or connect to.
2. Networking as Practice: Melissa introduces a few practical perspectives and experiences around relationship-building, collaboration, visibility, and sustaining connections within the music ecosystem.
3. Peer-to-Peer Exchange – The group works through questions, experiences, and challenges
brought into the session. Participants are encouraged to exchange knowledge, ideas, contacts, and possible points of collaboration.
4. Closing & Next Steps – A short reflection on what each participant might take forward: one
relationship to reconnect with, one new approach to try, one collaboration to explore, or one concrete next step.
Format:
The core of the session is moderated peer exchange.
*Melissa brings her experience as a Music Pool Berlin consultant, board member, curator, promoter, and long-time participant in Berlin’s independent music ecosystem, while the group brings its
own knowledge, questions, and perspectives.
The aim is not to provide one formula for successful networking. Instead, the session creates space to think together about how stronger relationships, collaboration, reciprocity, and shared
knowledge can contribute to more connected and sustainable ways of working in music.
90 minutes
max. 6–8 participants
moderated by Melissa Perales
Language: English